If you’ve been a Star Wars fan for a while, you’ve probably wondered the same thing I have. The Rebellion was made up of individuals who saw the Empire as a serious threat—especially after brutal acts like wiping out Alderaan for no reason.
The Great Purge of Mandalore was another horrific act by the Empire, nearly wiping out the Mandalorians. The Mandalorians would have every reason to join the Rebellion, right? But somehow, we don’t really see them fighting alongside the Rebels. So… what’s the deal?
Table of Contents
The Rebellion Was Too Secretive for Even the Mandalorians to Find
The first factor, I’d say, is that the Rebellion wasn’t well-known, and they operated in secrecy, making it difficult to contact them in the first place.
I found an interesting detail about this in Star Wars: A New Hope – Official Novelization. There’s a moment where Luke Skywalker talks with his friend Biggs Darklighter about Biggs joining the Rebellion. But instead of discussing it openly, they have to whisper, like it’s some dangerous secret that no one is supposed to know. Here’s how their conversation goes:
“You’re going to join the Rebellion?” Luke started. “You’ve got to be kidding. How?”
“Damp down, will you?” the bigger man cautioned, glancing furtively back toward the power station. “You’ve got a mouth like a crater.”
“I’m sorry,” Luke whispered rapidly. “I’m quiet—listen how quiet I am. You can barely hear me—”
Biggs cut him off and continued. “A friend of mine from the Academy has a friend on Bestine who might enable us to make contact with an armed rebel unit.”
“A friend of a—You’re crazy,” Luke announced with conviction, certain his friend had gone mad. “You could wander around forever trying to find a real rebel outpost. Most of them are only myths. This twice-removed friend could be an Imperial agent. You’d end up on Kessel, or worse. If rebel outposts were so easy to find, the Empire would have wiped them out years ago.”
As you can see, joining the Rebellion wasn’t easy—even someone like Biggs had to rely on secondhand connections, and Luke himself thought rebel outposts were just myths. If the Mandalorians wanted to join, they would have needed someone on the inside to make that connection, which wasn’t exactly a simple task.
Mandalorians Had No Desire/Reason to Join the Rebellion
The most reasonable explanation is that the Mandalorians never really had a reason to join the Rebellion—or any other faction, for that matter.
If we look back at The Clone Wars, we never saw Mandalorians siding with either the Republic or the Separatists, even though those two factions were at war. Why would they? The Mandalorians had no stake in that fight and no reason to pick a side just for the sake of it.
It was the same during the Galactic Civil War. The Empire didn’t actively harm Mandalorians until the Great Purge of Mandalore. As I mentioned earlier, the Empire’s goal during the Purge was to wipe out the Mandalorians and seize their beskar, one of the rarest metals in the Star Wars universe. But here’s the thing—the Purge happened after Return of the Jedi, somewhere between 4 ABY and 5 ABY. By that point, the Empire was already crumbling, and there was no reason for Mandalorians to join the Rebellion anymore.
Beyond that, we can see that Mandalorians didn’t really care about the Rebellion in general. A great example of this happens in The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 5 “The Pirate”. In this episode, Carson Teva warns Din Djarin that pirates attacking Nevarro might be tied to the remnants of the Empire. The New Republic is worried that the Empire is making a comeback, but the Mandalorians aren’t exactly eager to get involved.
Navarro also happens to be the home of Din’s friend, Greef Karga, which makes things more personal. Here’s part of their conversation:
Carson Teva: The New Republic has to know that the Empire is growing again.
Din Djarin: And you think the Pirate King has something to do with it?
Carson Teva: I can’t say for sure, but something doesn’t smell right. Look, it’s not your fight. I just came to tell you, your friend is in danger, and I thought you should know.
This scene makes it pretty clear—Mandalorians weren’t interested in fighting someone else’s war unless they had a direct reason to do so.
Maybe They Don’t Have Any Leader that Guide them
Another reasonable explanation is that Mandalore lacked a true leader to unite the Mandalorians and lead them to join the Rebellion against the Empire.
Unlike the Jedi, who operated as a single Order, Mandalorians weren’t all one unified group. They were divided into houses and clans, each with its own leadership. Take Pre Vizsla, for example—he was the leader of Clan Vizsla, which was part of House Vizsla, as we saw in The Clone Wars.
In Mandalorian culture, clans were organized under larger houses, and from what I know, there were at least three major houses on Mandalore: House Vizsla, House Kast, and House Kryze.
According to StarWars.fandom, we also learn that “the most important houses reported to the Mand’alor.”
Mand’alor is the sole leader of the Mandalorians, the one who has the power to unite all the houses under a single cause—whether that means going to war against the Empire or even joining the Rebellion. But to claim this title, a Mandalorian must wield the Darksaber, as it is the key to uniting their people.
In Star Wars Rebels, when Sabine Wren gives Bo-Katan Kryze the Darksaber, officially making her the leader of House Kryze and, in turn, the ruler of Mandalore.
However, by the time of The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 3, Bo-Katan had lost the Darksaber and was on a mission to track down the remnants of the Empire that had taken it from her.
Without the Darksaber, Bo-Katan can’t truly lead the Mandalorians, a point that gets reinforced during her duel with Axe Woves, where he makes it clear:
“The ruler of Mandalore must possess the Darksaber.”
And since there was no leader, the Mandalorians had no one to unite or guide them. On top of that, after the Great Purge of Mandalore, the survivors went into hiding, staying out of sight of the Empire.